Google is not the address for stopping online hate, the Israel director of the company, told a conference today. Organizers of the conference from the ADL and participants called for more action to stop anti-Jewish hate material freely available on the Internet.

But Google Israel Director Meir Brand explained his company’s free-access philosophy that puts it on the sidelines of the war against cyberhate.

“At Google, we have a bias in favor of people’s right to free expression,” he said. “Google is not and should not become the central arbiter of what does and does not appear on the Web. That’s for elected governments and courts to decide,” Brand said.

In Germany and Austria, he said, Google removes Nazi content, which is against the law there.

Recognizing the problem, however, Google has instituted a warning system for hate entries, taking viewers to a page warning that some of the search results may be offensive.

The problem with using law to combat hate speech online is that “technology changes so quickly,” said Brian Marcus, director of Internet monitoring for ADL North America. By the time the law is amended to prohibit certain sites, he said, those sites have changed names and addresses.

(Source: Penn Live)